Minister 'faces sack after speaking up for middle classes'

Health minister Ivan Lewis is being threatened with the sack after urging Gordon Brown to impose a 'supertax' on high earners.

Senior ministers are understood to have been infuriated by the suggestion, the latest in a series of provocative interventions by the Blairite minister.

One Government source told the Daily Mail: 'If he can't concentrate on his day job, he'll find himself without one pretty soon.'

Last month Mr Lewis warned Mr Brown that he must stop being timid and show stronger leadership if he is to revive his premiership.

Now he is considered to have broken one of the cardinal rules of Government, that ministers from other departments do not tell the Treasury what to do about tax.

A Treasury official said last night: 'Tax is a matter for the Chancellor, not a junior health minister. This is not something we are considering.'

Mr Lewis's comments came as the latest YouGov survey put Labour at just 25 per cent, with the Tories in a 20-point lead.

Mr Lewis used a newspaper article to warn Mr Brown that voters are 'angry and disappointed'. He insisted Labour had a 'duty' to use tax and spending decisions to show it was on the side of middle-class families - the 'mainstream majority' who helped Labour win the past three elections.

He proposed a 'supertax' - thought to be aimed at people earning £250,000 and more - a windfall tax on energy firms or a temporary freeze on stamp duty.

Mr Lewis said: 'Our duty is to act decisively and make sure we understand what it is like to cope with rising food, fuel and utility bills. If the only way to help hard-pressed middle-class families is to ask the highest earners to pay more, then serious consideration should be given to that.

'Yes, protect those on the lowest incomes but also help the hard-working middle classes with large mortgage commitments who are neither rich nor poor; the people who work long hours for their two holidays a year, leisure club membership, meals out with family and friends and ability to buy their children nice things.'

Last month, former minister Chris Leslie called for an extra 10p tax on earnings above £250,000, the threshold Mr Lewis is believed to favour.

The Treasury estimates this would yield £3.5billion a year.

But Maurice Fitzpatrick, of accountants Grant Thornton, said such a move would be 'thefinal repudiation' of Labour's 1997 election manifesto which pledged no rise in basic or higher rates of income tax.

£36,001- the level at which 40 per cent top tax rate kicks in

If £3.5billion from high earners was redistributed evenly to everyone else, he said, it would amount to £140 per household - 'hardly life-changing'.

Labour chiefs are considering holding the Glenrothes by-election much earlier than predicted as part of a desperate strategy to save Mr Brown's premiership.

With the party braced for another devastating defeat by the Scottish Nationalists in the poll, triggered by the death of MP John MacDougall, Mr Brown had been thought certain to leave it until after the Labour conference late next month.

But his allies fear that losing later in the year - the by-election can be held at any time between September 11 and December 4 - could end his chances of persuading his party he can lead them into the next General Election.

A mid-September by-election might give him time to bounce back at the party conference.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Graham Stringer yesterday called for a quick contest between Mr Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who signalled his leadership ambitions last month.

'Unless this issue is settled, the country will suffer in the most important respects - diplomacy and international relations,' he said.

Some Labour MPs believe tensions between the two men hampered the Government's response to the crisis in Georgia. Mr Miliband has now had to cancel a holiday in Menorca and will travel to Georgia tomorrow.

j.chapman@dailymail.co.uk

FEELING THE PINCH

Jamie Collis has had to cancel his £45-a-month gym membership as the soaring cost of living hits middle earners.

The 32-year-old consultant for Recognition PR, who earns about £28,000 a year, lives in Darlington with his wife, Sue, also 32, who is a full-time mother to their four-year-old daughter Anya.

Mr Collis said: 'I work hard to support my family and I have no complaints about that, but things seem to be getting harder and harder for people in my position.

'I'm not saying we have a really tough life - of course not. But little luxuries like meals out and foreign holidays should be the reward for working hard.

'We went to Majorca this year, which cost £1,000, but we're already thinking about a break in Britain next year. People in my position contribute a lot to the economy, but it seems everything is being taken from the haves to give to the have-nots.'